Meralco says customers’ refund to reach P58 M

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) refund to customers will amount to an estimated P58 million, representing payments for deferred electricity charges, which the power distributor put in their enhanced monthly billing statements given to 430,000 customers.

The deferred amount will be reflected in the March bills, which Meralco said would be lower because of lower electricity cost.

“Based on initial figures, the cost of supply from our power supply agreements (PSAs), independent power producers (IPPs), and from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) have all gone down during the February supply month, which will impact on the March bill,” Meralco said but noted that the final figure has yet to be finalized.

Regarding the refund, Meralco said some 430,000 Meralco customers received bills with deferred amount but only 37,000 opted to pay. Meralco has 5.5 million total costumers.

“As of press time, this corresponds to an estimated amount of P58 million,” Meralco said yesterday.

Meralco reiterated that the company had no intention to sow confusion among its customers.

“As stated in our earlier response to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), we will return to affected customers the amount they have paid corresponding to the deferred amount. This will be done through credit to bill,” Meralco said.

The ERC, the power regulator, earlier called the attention of Meralco for including deferred charges in its enhanced billing statements to customers, saying that it has sowed confusion.

The deferred charges were the subject of the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court in December.

Meralco’s December bill was supposed to be P9.10 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) but earlier approved to be collected in three installments. However, the Supreme Court’s TRO left Meralco with no choice but to peg the December bill at P5.67 per kWh or equivalent to the November bill.